Picking up the ABCs of traveling with tech

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Technology has become so intertwined with our daily lives that we take it along even when we’re actually taking a break from life and relaxing on a faraway island or exploring a new city. And we’re not just reliant on technology during the trip. Often times, technology is pertinent in the preparations before and the round-ups after the trip as well. Some of the travel-related companies have even put their bets on and invested heavily in mobile technology as they anticipate this being the future of travel. Besides the mobile revolution, a study by IBM has also revealed three other trends that power the way technology is reinventing the travel industry – cloud enablement, social media explosion and analytics. Today, we’d like to present to you some of the best technologies that have rode on these trends to help ease all that pre-trip travel anxiety.

Apps & Airplanes

Pre-trip preparations are probably the most painful part of traveling, especially if you’re not engaging a tour agency. Yet now, various apps exist to make you life that much easier. With apps like Skyscanner or Quicket, you could literally search, choose, book and monitor flights at your fingertips. Should you have a delayed or cancelled flight, you could also fight for your flight rights at AirHelp. Once your flights are neatly settled, you could then read up about and navigate through various cities with the offline Trip Advisor city guides, find travel companions through TourRadar, or try your hand at this P2P currency exchange platform, WeSwap. Apps like StreetSmart and App in the Air are also riding the wave of wearable technology to provide a seamless travel experience. There really is an app for everything! Check this comprehensive list of TimeOut’s 50 best travel apps for more.

Bed & Breakfast

One of the other big-ticket and huge-headache pre-trip challenge lies in the booking of accommodations. Traditionally, booking a few nights at international hotels in another city or local boutique hotels required either the help of middlemen who could make the bookings for us, or through a play of luck, chance and serendipity as we hop from one hotel to the other, trying to find a roof over our heads. This means that one had to pay extra commission to the middlemen or part with a greater portion of their money as these accommodation providers had the higher bargaining power. Today though, technology and the Internet has pretty much helped us to exploit the travel industry so that we get the cheapest possible deals. HotelQuickly, for instance, allows you to book hotel reservations on the same day at a tremendous discount. Others like Airbnb, which is largely associated with the sharing economy, have also introduced more options for overseas accommodation, thereby helping to drive prices down or push the value of the hotel chains’ offerings upwards.

Comfort & Capture

Once you’re done with all the bookings, you’re probably mentally and physically preparing for all you would need during the trip. And if you’re not afraid of looking a little dorky, one great-to-have product in your carry-on luggage would definitely be the Ostrich pillow. Now once you’re rested, you can go ahead and fully absorb and embrace the new cultures that you’ve traveled miles to come to. PS: Don’t forget to wear the Narrative Clip to capture candid moments on your trip while fully immersing yourself into the travel experience! Post-trip consolidation of all these lovely memories created can also be less of a hassle with services such as Animoto, which helps you to turn ordinary photo and video clips into great videos so that you can easily review and reminisce upon that perfect trip with your loved ones or new found friends.